The NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU is an integrated graphics card in the NVIDIA Tegra X1 SoC for (mostly Android based) tablets. It is the successor of the Tegra K1 GPU and based on the Maxwell architecture. It offers the same features as the laptop and desktop Maxwell based products like OpenGL 4.5, CUDA 6.0, OpenGL ES 3.1 and DirectX 11.2. The GPU offers 256 shader cores (2 SMMs) and clocks at up to 1000 MHz. The memory interface offers a maximum bandwidth of 25.6 GB/s (2x 32 Bit LPDDR4-3200).
First benchmarks of the Tegra X1 graphics card using GLBench show twice as high scores as the PowerVR GXA6850 in the Apple A8X. Therefore, the X1 should be the fastest GPU for Android based devices that should not struggle with high end Android games in high resolutions.
The improved video part of the SoC is able to en- and decode 4K videos in H.265 according to Nvidia (decoding at 60fps, encoding at 30fps). Thanks to HDMI 2.0 support, the 4K60 material can be transmitted to external displays (2 displays in parallel at max). The integrated dual ISP is able to drive up to 6 cameras (max. 100 MP, 4096 focus points) at once.
The power consumption of the whole SoC should be rather big compared to other ARM based SoCs. Therefore, Tegra X1 based smartphones are unlikely. As the Tegra K1, the X1 will be most likely seen in tablets with good cooling solutions. Similar to the Apple A8X, the Tegra X1 is manufactured in 20nm.
The Qualcomm Adreno 650 is a smartphone and tablet GPU that is integrated within the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, 865+ and 870 SoCs. The chip will be available from early 2020 and will be used mainly in high-end Android devices. The base clock speed of the GPU is 250 MHz and the boost depends on the used SoC. For the 865 it is 587 MHz, the 865 Plus increased to 846 MHz and the 2021 870 reached 670 MHz.
According to Qualcomm, the Adreno 650 GPU offers a 25% improved performance over the Adreno 640, its predecessor, which is integrated into the Snapdragon 855 SoC. The enhanced performance is achieved by the Adreno 650 having 50% more compute units (ALUs) than the Adreno 640. Furthermore, the clock speed of the pixel shaders was also increased by 50%.
The performance in our first benchmarks of a reference system positions itself above the ARM Mali-G76 MP16 and e.g. in 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme even on the top spot. In GFXBench only the Apple A13 GPU is able to best the Adreno 650 (regarding smartphone GPUs).
As a novelty, the GPU driver can be updated in the Android Play Store. Furthermore, some features are running under the Elite Gaming brand (e.g., 144 Hz display support, desktop forward rendering).
The Adreno 650 supports Vulkan 1.1, DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2.0 FP. Furthermore, games and videos can use HDR10+ and Dolby Vision (with a supported display). The 650 supports 2 displays with up to 4K 60 Hz / QHD+ 144 Hz.
The Qualcomm Adreno 540 is an integrated graphics card in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC for smartphones. It was introduced in early 2017 and can be found in high-end Android smartphones.
The integrated GPU is based on the optimized architecture of the Adreno 530, but features clearly improved clock speeds (710 versus 624 MHz according to Anandtech) and better thermal stability. This is also thanks to the new 10 nm process the Snapdragon 835 is produced in. In the reference smartphone from Qualcomm, the Adreno 540 is able to beat or perform at a similar level as the fastest smartphone graphics cards on the market (e.g. the ARM Mali-T880MP12, ARM Mali-G71MP8 or Apple A10 GPU). Therefore, it should be perfectly suited for demanding 3D gaming and also mobile VR and 4K displays.
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU → 100%n=7
Average Benchmarks Qualcomm Adreno 650 → 485%n=7
Average Benchmarks Qualcomm Adreno 540 → 106%n=7
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card - Average benchmark values for this graphics card * Smaller numbers mean a higher performance 1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
Game Benchmarks
The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.